At the end of August, Radio Azadi reporter Mujeeb Angaar became aware that Pakistani police had used the pretext of a roadside document check to rob Abdul Wahed, an Afghan national who was traveling with a friend to a Peshawar hospital to obtain medical treatment for his daughter. Wahed had given the money he had raised for the medical visit, the equivalent of approximately $1,000 in Afghan and Pakistani currencies, to his friend for safe keeping.

“We were in a taxi going to Peshawar, and on our way we were stopped by the police,” Wahed told Angaar. He said that two male officers approached the car and told the friend to leave the taxi. When the friend refused, he was forcibly removed and taken to a hidden area of the street, robbed of Wahed’s money and beaten. Wahed himself was unharmed in the incident.

“I was left alone with my daughter,” Wahed recalled. “I asked these two officers to have a little mercy on us.” The officers ignored Wahed’s pleas and left the scene with his daughter’s medical funds.